Friday, August 10, 2012

Cleveland Clinic

So here I am wired up and stuck in a bed for however many days it takes. It was supposed to be a week but hopefully I'll get out sooner. Did I mention I'm having a video EEG? Not only am I wired up for the week but they'll have video of it too. Yay. I mean really, who doesn't want video of them looking perfectly horrid?

I feel rather sorry for the poor chap that has to stare at my mug for a week. I can tell you that the glue they use for the electrodes itches like crazy. I can also tell you nurses and PAs do not get enough money. The ones I've met here have been downright awesome.

For those who don't know my background here's a little summary:

Nine years ago I was a successful zoo keeper. I was working at the Detroit Zoo and was in bliss. I had the greatest managers, curators, and coworkers anyone could hope to have. One day I was scrubbing the Penguinarium and this pain shot down my left arm into my pinky finger. It brought me to my knees. Mind you, I've been bitten by a lion cub, kicked in the hip by a zebra, had part of my right thumb eaten away by a lizard and those pains were nothing compared to this one.

I sort of figured it would be something like carpal tunnel or a pinched nerve, no big deal. I kept working and a month later that same pain, followed by numbness caused me to drop a bucket of herring and capelin that I was taking up to feed the penguins with. Again the pain had brought me literally to my knees and as I knelt in the Penguinarium kitchen shocked by what had happened I realized I was going to have to go to the doctor.

I was misdiagnosed with Fibromyalgia and spent 4 and a half years being treated with every Fibro drug under the sun. My doctor finally looked at me and said "This is not Fibromyalgia." Since that moment we have been running tests and I've gone to see a couple specialists. Along the way things have changed and worsened, tests have come back at "impossible" levels and everyone has been baffled. I was sent to Cleveland Clinic to test me for a possible seizure disorder.

They don't believe that is the answer but yet another possible side effect of whatever illness is slowly eating me away. They're drawing blood and testing everything while I'm here and hopefully they'll get to the bottom of what's been happening. Whether it's treatable or not it'll just be nice to have an answer, you know?

So there you have it, the whole story in a nutshell. Well, I'm off to do some writing, I hope your day is bright and good. May all your days be happy ones and may good luck follow you wherever you go.

2 comments:

Oh Sweetie! I feel so bad for you. It took two years to get a diagnosis of Fibromyalgia for me and it was awful knowing something was wrong, but not knowing whay. And luckily, it was Fibro, not something more. And they do have new drugs that really help.

I hope they get this figured out, and quickly. It sounds like you're in good hands there.